Pennsylvania Homeschoolers has led a continuing and successful effort to keep Pennsylvania's compulsory school entrance age at 8 and, as a result, Pennsylvania continues to be one of the only two states with such a high age.
From June 1991 to February 1994 Governor Casey tried to get bills through both the PA House and Senate that would have lowered the age to 6. Through our successful lobbying campaigns we were able to bottle up these bills even though, during one period, both House and Senate were controlled by Democrat Governor Casey's party. Then when Governor Casey retired we obtained a campaign promise from Republican Governor Ridge not to raise the compulsory school age. Here are some highlights from these successful campaigns.
On June 12, 1991, House Bill 1695 was introduced in the PA House of Representatives. It passed out of the House Education Committee six days later, and would have passed the House and Senate in June or July as part of the budget compromise except for the efforts of homeschoolers across the state who phoned, visited, and wrote their legislators. This bill would lower the school entrance age from 8 to 6 and raise the exit age from 17 to 18. The PA Department of Education held that lowering the school age would give school districts a tool to force "at risk" children into school at age 6.
On October 16, 1991, PA Homeschoolers organized a lobbying day at the state capitol so that homeschoolers could visit their state representatives and senators to oppose this bill and give them fact sheets that we had prepared.
A Harrisburg radio station estimated that about 300 homeschoolers were in attendance at the lobbying day. Some very effective lobbying occurred. Perhaps most important of all was homeschool leader Jim Means successful meeting with Senator Rhoades, Republican Chair of the Senate Education Committee, who decided, at the meeting, to shelve a companion bill that he was about to introduce which would have altered the school age.
We held a press conference and rally in the Capitol Rotunda at 11am. Karen Keckler, President of Concerned Women of America, and I, as co-editor of PA Homeschoolers newsletter spoke at the Rally.
In my speech I took on the arguments being made by the PA Department of Education. For example, I said:
The Department of Education has argued that the compulsory attendance age must be lowered from 8 to 6 in order to protect 26,000 6- and 7-year-olds who are currently not in school. According to the Department their goal is to enroll economically disadvantaged, homeless, or migrant children who are at- risk if not forced into school at age 6 or 7. This goal sounds great. Everybody wants to help the homeless and the economically disadvantaged. But would this bill really help them?
Let's look at the homeless. This bill would not effect them at all. These children do not have homes or any other addresses where they can be found by school census workers. It is almost impossible to force them into schools whether they are under 8, or over 8. While it is laudatory to promote a bill that would help homeless children, in this case it is pointless.
Now let's look at the economically disadvantaged. According to the social workers with whom I have talked, the economically disadvantaged already send their children to school at 6. While it is laudatory to have a bill that would help economically disadvantaged children, in this case it is irrelevant.
So who are the 26,000 6- or 7-year-olds that this bill is designed to save. Are they at-risk or are they doing just fine at present? I've come up with two groups who comprise this 26,000 and they are both doing just fine.
One part of the 26,000 are approximately 5,000 homeschooled children. Their parents, and I am one, never ask for a penny of state money. But we don't want the rules governing homeschooling to be made tougher without our consent. We have long cherished the freedom that the eight-year-old beginning school age gives to homeschoolers....
The other part of the 26,000 consists of children whose parents hold them back an extra year before starting them in school. The Department of Education may think that these children are at- risk, but the research tells a different story....
I went on to describe the research into the "birthdate effect", an effect found by Special Education researchers and discussed by homeschooling pioneer Dr. Raymond Moore which shows that children who are young for their grade when entering school are more likely to be labeled than students who are old for their grade. The conclusion of my speech was picked up in some radio broadcasts. I concluded:
Compulsory attendance laws, by their very nature, take away people's freedom. They should not be expanded unless there is a very good reason to do so.
The Department of Education has not yet presented any evidence that expanding the compulsory attendance age would benefit a single child, while I have presented evidence that this expansion would hurt many children.
If we are still a country that believes in freedom, we must fight this completely unjustified attempt to expand the governmental control over the right of parents to direct the education of their children.
After the lobbying day the effort continued. Several support groups organized group meetings with their legislators and senators. For example, Ingrid Wakeman, leader of the Easton Area homeschoolers support group organized a meeting with Rep. Freeman at the Easton Public Library. Nineteen families showed up. Both homeschool children and adults made presentations at the meeting and it was covered by Cable TV. This was only one of many similar meetings which occurred throughout Pennsylvania.
As a result of these efforts, HB 1695 was sent by the House leaders to the Appropriations Committee where it was allowed to die at the end of 1992. According to state representatives and their staff people it was too controversial to be voted on during an election year.
In the election at the end of 1992, the Democrats took over the PA Senate by a narrow margin and so a Democrat replaced Senator Rhoades as leader of the Senate Education Committee.
On Thursday, April 29, 1993, I opened a letter from the Home School Legal Association which included copies of Pennsylvania bills that might affect homeschoolers. The Home School Legal Association routinely scans legislation from around the country and notifies state homeschool leaders of their findings.
The letter from the HSLDA came in the nick of time. (I saw God's hand at work here.) If the letter came to me a few days later, it would have been too late to stop the bill in the Senate. I immediately called my senator and learned that the bill was set to be voted on early the next week. It wasn't on Monday's calendar, so it would probably be voted on Tuesday May 4.
I immediately wrote a letter to all of the senators which I got off in the mail the next day. I included a Commentary that I had written on Head Start in Education Week (October 21, 1992) the weekly newspaper of the educational establishment. Many senators mistakenly believe that the Head Start research justifies lowering the compulsory school entrance age. My Commentary discusses the Head Start research and concludes that Head Start programs "do not produce long-term gains in either achievement or IQ."
That Saturday I called all of the support group leaders listed in our newsletter (except a few in a part of Bucks County who currently have no senator). I told each leader their senator's name, gave each leader their senator's phone number and asked each leader to call ten of their members and ask them to call their senator in Harrisburg on Monday afternoon.
The support group leaders came through. The next day, almost all of the senators were getting dozens of calls. I wasn't able to go to Harrisburg myself, so I also called several leaders and asked if they could go.
Some, including Barb Snider, Nancy Emerson, Chris Monroy, Janet Kipe, William Day, Robert and Sue Rothermel, Chris Pfaff, and Bob Finley dropped whatever they were doing and showed up at the Capitol over the next two days. Chris Pfaff was new to statewide homeschooling leadership, but proved that he was someone we could count on. Bob Finley, Barb Snider, and Nancy Emerson, have proven their leadership time and time again and played major roles in this battle just as they did when our homeschooling bill passed in 1988.
Four teens from Chambersburg were especially effective lobbyists. Jennifer Snider, Rebecca Snider, Lydia Hudzinski, and Brian Kipe went from office to office in the Capitol winning over senators, their assistants and secretaries.
We continued to send out phone tree messages over the next few days, and tried to concentrate our lobbying efforts on key Democratic senators since the Democrats control the State Senate with a narrow majority. Soon the leadership of the Senate realized that they did not have enough Democratic senators with them to pass the bill unless they could arrange a compromise with the homeschoolers. So, they postponed the vote for a week.
On Thursday, May 6th, I received a phone call from Bob Feir, a former top official in the Department of Education who was now a staff person in Senator Lincoln's (the Democratic majority leader's) office. Bob Feir proposed a compromise with me which would have changed the homeschooling law at the same time that the compulsory school law was changed so that homeschooling parents with children under 8 would not have had to do much more than file an affidavit.
He faxed me his proposal, and we discussed it. As soon as I hung up, I called the Home School Legal Defense Association and faxed them the proposal. I also called other homeschooling leaders. Fortunately, the state-wide Lancaster Curriculum Fair was scheduled for the Farm Show Arena on Saturday, May 8th. I got in touch with Bill and Kay Lechner and they agreed to arrange a meeting at the curriculum fair where homeschooling leaders could discuss the proposed compromise. My main hope was that homeschoolers could stay united, whether we decided to accept or reject the compromise.
The meeting at the curriculum fair in the Harrisburg Farm Show was democratically run by Bill Lechner. He gave everyone who asked a chance to stand up before the group and present their position. There was a lot of good wisdom represented at the meeting. Some of those who could not attend, including Mary Hudzinski, sent letters which were read by many of those who attended the meeting.
Despite the fact that there were more than 50 leaders present, we were able to reach what was almost a consensus. Michael Geer's comments were especially helpful in helping us reach an agreement. There were very few hands raised against it when we put it to a vote.
A committee was quickly set up with the job of communicating our position to Bob Feir and the senators by Monday. After they received our position, the Democratic leadership decided to table the bill by putting it back in the education committee.
On May 24th I received the following letter from Senator Frank Pecora, one of the Democratic senators who responded to our lobbying effort. Senator Pecora has long been a friend of homeschooling and an advocate for the family. He wrote:
Dear Mr. & Mrs. Richman:
Thank you for your recent inquiry into Senate Bill 724 -- a measure expanding the compulsory school attendance from six to eighteen (from its current range of eight to seventeen).
As you may know, Senate Bill 724 passed through the Senate Education Committee and was on its way to final passage at the end of April when a public outcry halted its progress. The bill has since been re-referred to the Education Committee where it is expected to remain indefinitely. In fact, there is some reason to believe that the bill may not be acted upon at all.
In the event that SB 724 is released from the Education Committee, I will introduce an amendment exempting home schoolers from the bill's provisions. Clearly, I will not support SB 724 in its current form, and will certainly take into consideration your position if and when this measure comes to the Senate floor for a vote. Thank you again, and if I may ever be of further assistance, please don't hesitate to contact my office.
Sincerely,
Frank A. Pecora
44th District
We didn't hear any more about the bill until the Senate Education Committee scheduled a discussion of it for Monday, February 14, 1994. We found out about the scheduled discussion just in time to mount a quick lobbying campaign. Many homeschoolers called their senators. Chris Pfaff went to Harrisburg to lobby in person. Most of the Republican Senators were on our side, and most of the Democratic Senators were against us.
But the meeting and all other Senate activities were suddenly canceled to prevent the Republicans from taking over because at the same time in Bucks County a Federal Judge was ruling that the Democrats had stolen a Bucks County election. (I saw God's hand in the timing here.) As a result of the Republican victory in court, the Republican Senators suddenly outnumber the Democratic Senators by 26 to 24. They regained control of the Senate and the Senate Education Committee when the Senate came back into session. As a result Senator James Rhoades, the new Republican Chair of the Senate Education Committee who had been on our side all along, never let it out of his committee and it died at the end of 1994.
In November 1994, a new governor was elected. We were able to get both of the major candidates (Democrat Singel and Republican Ridge) to answer our questionnaire about their position on the compulsory school age. Both positions were published in the August 1994 issue of the PA Homeschoolers newsletter. Specifically we asked them: "What are your positions on the proposals for lowering the compulsory school entrance age to age 6 and for raising the compulsory school exit age from 17 to 18?"
Gubernatorial candidate Ridge replied:
I do not support any changes in the state's compulsory attendance laws to either lower the school entrance age or raise the exit age. Pennsylvania's current entrance age requirement gives parents a great deal of freedom, as it appropriately should, as to when their child is ready to begin school. Maintaining the current law's requirements is consistent with maintaining that parental freedom.
Gubernatorial candidate Singel replied:
I will carefully evaluate any bill which may have an impact on the education of children in Pennsylvania. Everything that a child learns in and out of the classroom can be a learning experience, and we must insure that parents are given as many options as possible regarding the education of their children. Furthermore, we must be sure that children are adequately prepared for the next step of their education.
These replies contributed to Governor Ridge's support from the homeschooling community in the election. Throughout Governor Ridge's term, no bills were voted upon that would have changed the compulsory school age.
Return to PA Homeschoolers Home Page
Return to Homeschooling in Pennsylvania